What Are The Difference Between First And Third World Urbanization?

However, while some general common characteristics can be identified, it is essential to emphasize the numerous differences between first- and third-world urbanization processes.

First of all, first and third world cities present a major difference of land use in as much as the urban core doesn’t have the same characteristics. One the one hand, first-world cities are centred on the Central Business District (CBD) only. It forms the heart of the transportation network and gathers the main commercial activities of the city. On the other hand, a third-world city core also contains a traditional market place in addition to the CBD. This area, which is called bazaar in the Middle East, is constituted of small street businesses. However, in Third-World

The characteristics of social segregation in these cities are also different. First-world cities follow the principle of human ecology, i.e. the free market is decisive to land use and residence types. From this perspective, land use is a competition in which the wealthiest win and get to choose their living location – usually the one with the best liveability (environment, services availability, accessibility). This results in a spatial segregation between high- and low-income classes as the last group doesn’t have the means to live in the best neighbourhoods and usually has to live close to industrial zones. On the other hand, socio-spatial segregation in third-world cities is based on racial, religious or ethnical factors. Because of its history, South Africa is a very relevant example to study. Although the apartheid ended in 1991, the spatial segregation between Black and White people still exists. Indeed, Black people generally have limited options of residence and remain in poor neighbourhoods, as the example of Cape Town shows (We Elections, 2012). While the White population lives in a First-World like environment, with numerous infrastructures (like roads, airports and hotels), the Black community is often gathered in third-world like neighbourhoods lacking basic services like water supply (Healey, 2011). This contrast between the two types of cities must however be

These non-durable, unstable, unsanitary and illegal areas developed during the 19th century industrialization in developed countries. For example, the slum area of East London, also known as the “darkest London” developed because of the rapid population growth fed by the migration waves from rural areas. However, while the living conditions may be similar, third-world slums are nowadays characterized by their incredible density and size. For example, Neza-Chalco-Itza in Mexico, one of the greatest slums of the world, hosts at least 4 million people with a density of 800 000 people per square kilometre. In addition to the poor sanitary conditions – 1,8 million people live without water in their homes –, the population also has no legal status, as the settlements are often illegal (Shi Yun, 2014). This has raised many human issues in other major slums in the world, like Dharavi in Mumbai, India, Kibera in Nairobi, Nigeria, and the Brazilian favelas. Overall, since the beginning of the 20th century, more than one billion people live in slums (Murphy, 2003). The difference of scales between both worlds is due to the weak government control and planning as well as the immigration rhythm, which is faster than industrialization and urbanization. The cities therefor can’t integrate the